Beginning of an End
by Sakizm
Summary: Aang's death and Korra's birth: "When the Avatar dies, he is reincarnated into the next nation of the cycle."


**Hello all! I had to get this plot bunny out of my head ^^; So I spent the last few days writing this one-shot out. I had this idea of Aang finding out that he had not long to live, his death and transition to Korra's birth. **

**I hope you all enjoy! :)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar : the Last Airbender or the Legend of Korra.**

* * *

"_We all die. The goal isn't to live forever; the goal is to create something that will."_

_~Chuck Palahniuk_

* * *

Aang stares at the blank parchment on his desk, the ink brush held tightly in his right hand. He wonders where to begin. What to begin writing about in his will.

_His will._

Aang cannot believe he is writing out his last wishes on a piece of paper. He is only fifty six years old for spirit's sake! Setting down the brush, the middle aged Avatar lets out a sigh as he rubs a hand over his bald head. He thinks about what his predecessor, Avatar Roku had told him a few nights ago:

_The Fire Nation Avatar had come to Aang in a dream. He told him that he had something very important to know and to speak with him on the summer solstice. _

_ Two days later, Aang goes out on the meditation pavilion of his Air Temple Island home. He sits in a lotus position and closes his eyes, meditating; trying to reach the Spirit World. As the sun sets over the ocean, Aang's arrow tattoos begin to glow._

_ He opens his eyes to see that he is in the Spirit World for his predecessor is sitting in front of him._

_ "Hello, Aang," Roku greets him with a smile._

_ "Hello, Roku," Aang smiles back. He has not seen Avatar Roku in many years. "So what is going on?"_

_ The smile on Roku's face vanishes, replaced with a sad frown as he looks at his successor. "Aang, I fear that your life will be cut short."_

_ "What? Why?" asks the airbender, concerned._

_ Roku lets out a small sigh. "Your time in the Avatar State had burned up most of your life energy during the hundred years you were frozen in that iceberg." The older Avatar explains, his amber eyes showing sorrow as he looks at Aang._

_ "S-so you're saying that I will die soon?" says Aang, looking down in torment. "Do you know how much longer I have?" He looks hopefully at Roku, but the older Avatar closes his eyes in sadness and shakes his head._

_ "I'm sorry, Aang."_

Aang hated knowing that his early demise would come anytime soon. It could be tomorrow, a month, a year, or ten years from now. If he died now, he would leave his youngest son, Tenzin as the last airbender in the world. Aang hated the thought of that. He knew how it felt to be the last of your race. It was very lonely.

His twenty four year old son was currently teaching some young Air Acolytes the Air Nomad culture and teachings. For a while now, Tenzin has been dating Toph BeiFong's daughter, Lin. And soon, Tenzin will take over Aang's spot as the Air Nation representative on the Republic City Council.

The last thing he wanted was to leave Tenzin the burden of being the only living airbender on his plate.

How was he going to tell Tenzin of his early death? To Kya and Bumi? To his friends?

How was he going to tell Katara?

_She won't take the news very well,_ Aang thinks somberly, picturing his wife's anguished face as he tells her.

_No one will._ He pictures his three children, Sokka, Toph, Suki, and Zuko's pained expressions as he tells them.

Aang knows the whole world will grieve over his death. Seeing how he had defeated the Fire Lord and ended the Hundred Year War with the help of his friends at twelve years old. He and the new Fire Lord, Zuko had founded the United Republic of Nations with Republic City as its capital. Since then, the world had entered an era of peace for the first time in over a hundred years.

A peaceful world where the new Avatar will continue to keep balance, unlike the war-torn world Aang had seen when he emerged out of the iceberg and was given the duty to end the War.

"The new Avatar…" Aang whispers to himself, looking out the large window in his study at the setting sun over the sea.

He then gets an idea of what to write for his will. Aang picks up the brush again and dips it in the ink bowl. He brushes the first character on the parchment, writing out the first draft of his will:

_If you are reading this, then that means my time in this world has come to an end. I may be gone, but I do have a few things to address:_

_ To ensure the safety of the next Avatar, I would like to have the Order of the White Lotus to oversee the new Avatar as he or she is training the four elements. This is to make sure that the Avatar won't disappear from the world like I did. Also to protect him or her from outside threats like the looming war as the monks had warned me before the Fire Nation wiped out the Air Nomads in an attempt to kill me._

_ As for the whereabouts of the new Avatar, you probably already know that I am from the Air Nomads and according to the cycle, water is next after air. So I will be reborn into the Water Tribes…_

* * *

"_Avatar Aang accomplished many remarkable things in his life. But sadly, his time in this world came to an end." _

* * *

Avatar Roku had been right. His life was to be a short one.

Aang feels the coldness slowly sap away the warmth in his body and he shivers a little. The chills had nothing to do with the wintry weather outside.

It was death.

Aang could feel its presence in the room, lurking in the shadows, patiently waiting to take his life. To take him into the Spirit World.

For the past ten years, Aang felt the toll of being frozen in an iceberg for a hundred years weigh heavily on his body. His joints began to ache. His eye sight was dimming to a point where he had to wear spectacles to read. His gait was slowing and had trouble keeping up unless he used his airbending to catch up. White hair was beginning to streak his brown beard.

Aang sits in the wooden rocking chair that was a gift from Hakoda when his daughter, Kya was born. He and Katara had frequently used it when rocking their infant children to sleep. Aang misses the days when Kya, Bumi, and Tenzin were small children. All three are grown up now. His two eldest are married and have children of their own; Kya has two and Bumi has one. His youngest son is still busy with the Council and teaching the Air Acolytes. Tenzin and Lin had recently broken up, realizing that they had different goals in life and had been growing distant for a while.

Aang had been a little disappointed when Tenzin informed him that he broke up with Lin. But Aang respected his son's decision and hopes that he will find a wonderful woman to marry one day. He notices that a young female Air Acolyte had been following Tenzin around and whenever his son spoke to her, she would smile shyly at him and a small blush graced her cheeks.

Aang recognizes her. Her name is Pema. A quiet, well-mannered young girl who took her studies seriously. And she has a crush on his son. Aang remembers the days when he had a crush on Katara when he was a child.

He was ecstatic when Katara agreed to be his girlfriend at the end of the War and was beyond happy when she agreed to marry him years later. Their wedding was one of the happiest days of his life.

He married his Forever Girl. His Katara.

His wife is currently sitting at the table, humming an old Water Tribe song as she sewed a hole closed on one of her blue tunics. The afternoon sun bathes her in the golden sunrays through a window behind her.

Aang shivers again when he feels a chill run down his spine and a weird sensation at the base of his soul, like something was tugging at his spirit. He doesn't understand why he felt that, but somehow he knew it was time.

Aang groans as he lifts himself out of the chair, his joints protesting at the movement as he stands up on his feet. Katara pauses in her sewing to watch as her husband walk out the front doors into the cold weather. She grabs her parka and a blanket for Aang before following him outside.

"Aang, where are you going?" asks Katara, putting a blanket over her husband's shoulders.

"To the stables." Aang replies, "I want to see Appa."

Katara only nods in understanding, somehow knowing that Aang doesn't have much time now. That he would be departing from this world soon. She helps her husband walk across the snow covered courtyard to the Sky Bison stables.

Appa gives a happy grumble as he sees Aang and Katara approach the stables. He greets Aang with a sloppy lick to his face, glad to see his dear friend and master.

Aang laughs, wiping the bison drool off his face as he pats Appa on the nose.

"Hey buddy," Aang murmurs, running his hand from the bison's cool, wet nose to his warm, furry side. He buries his face in Appa's fur, fingers griping the white strands. Aang then uses airbending to help climb up onto his usual spot Appa's head. He leans back, taking comfort against the itchy white fur of his longtime companion.

Aang looks down to see Katara looking at him with sad blue eyes. He gives a sad smile and airbends her up onto the spot next to him. Katara blinks back unshed tears as Aang grasps her hand, assuring her that it will be fine. That death was natural as breathing.

Katara chokes back a sob as she leans onto her husband's shoulder, looking out at the courtyard, the bright blue sky looming over. Aang thinks he has never seen the sky this blue before.

Another tugging sensation ripples through Aang's soul. He tightly holds Katara's hand and Appa's fur in the other as he stares at the blue sky.

Yes, the sky has never looked so beautiful.

Aang smiles as he closes his eyes, taking one last breath of the fresh air he loved so much.

He was the twelve year old boy who had ended the Hundred Year War with the help of his friends. He was the young boy who founded the United Republic of Nations along with Fire Lord Zuko and the world entered an era of peace. He was the young man who married the love of his life and had three children with her.

The tugging sensation intensifies as Avatar Aang exhaled his last breath in this world.

* * *

"_And like the cycle of the seasons…"_

* * *

"It's a girl!" the midwife declared, holding up the wailing newborn for the new parents to see.

"She's beautiful," the mother, Senna whispers. She watches the midwife clean up her daughter and wraps her up in a fur blanket. Her husband, Tonraq agrees, kissing Senna on the forehead.

The midwife carries over the infant and places her into Senna's open arms. She delicately holds her daughter up close to her chest, peering down at her sleeping face. Tonraq brushes a thick finger over his daughter's soft brown hair.

"What should we name her?" asks Tonraq.

Senna ponders for a moment, looking down at her daughter's small face. She would need a proper Water Tribe name. A name that would fit for their new daughter. A name that she would proudly carry.

"What do you think of Korra?" Senna asks her husband.

Tonraq tests out the name by saying it out loud before agreeing that the name fits for their daughter.

"Korra," he whispers.

The newborn then opens her eyes, to reveal blue irises.

Blue as the sky.

* * *

"…_the cycle of the Avatar, began anew."_

* * *

Senna sweeps the floor while listening to a catchy tune on the radio in her home. She then hears of the message by the Order of the White Lotus saying that if they know a child from the Water Tribes who can bend the four elements to report to them.

Senna sighs; the White Lotus' dispatch has been going on through the radio since a year after the death of Avatar Aang. In the old days, it was tradition to reveal the identity of the next Avatar when they turned sixteen. But since Avatar Aang's time, it has changed drastically.

"Mommy, look!" Senna hears her daughter call out.

"Yes, swee–" begins the young mother, stopping when she sees her daughter bend water out of the pitcher.

"You're a waterbender!" exclaims Senna, hugging her daughter. Korra pushes her away.

"That's not all I can do," the four year old says. She bends a stump of earth up and punches out fire in the air.

Senna sits, shocked at her daughter's display of bending.

Was her daughter the new Avatar?

Later that night when Tonraq comes home from a day of hunting with the men, Senna tells Korra that she should show her father what she can do.

Tonraq stands, stunned at the bending his young daughter had displayed. She had bent three elements.

Both Senna and Tonraq look at each other, Tonraq says he will call for the Order of the White Lotus first thing in the morning.

Their daughter, Korra was the new Avatar.

* * *

"_I'm the Avatar! You gotta deal with it!"_

* * *

**Hope you liked it! Reviews are appreciated. :)**


End file.
